WLA Conference - Summary Redux

The conference is over, but the association web master (web mistress?) has created a page with links to many of the presentations. So, if you want to check my report, or read about a program I did not attend, you can visit the 2007 Conference Page of the WLA web site.

WLA Conference - Summary

Well, it is over. I am about to power down and head back home.

I learned a great deal at this conference. Some was about the local scene and the rules in Wisconsin. There were some great authors (that is always a good part of conferences). I also learned more about technology.

Of course the networking was important. Some of the best ideas come from the informal meetings and discussions that take place outside of the formal sessions.

WLA Conference - The 411 on Mashups

Julie Fricke of Lawrence University (Appleton) did a great job of explaining mashups. I was standing for the beginning, and the PowerPoint will be on the WLA Conference Web site.

Among others she talked about:
Facebook (and Facebook apps)
Book Carousel
Chicago Crime Statistics
Housing map (from Craigs List)
SuprGlu (and Frickeglu) (seems like a place to have a bunch of your own stuff come)
Frappr

How do I make one: add this app (point & click...like Facebook, iGoogle); clone (Pipes); program (server side --to do some programming need to request and get a key).

When is it OK to mix? Many have creative commons copyright licenses, but other have limitations (like Google Maps). What is the provenance (the Wikipedia problem)? What is its authority? How simple and what support will you get? Will there be upgrades? What happens with changes in software.

An account for the presentation has been set up:
http://del.icio.us/wlamash
(password is web2.0)

Another interesting site is mashable.com (inlcudes news related to social networking software), can subscribe to an RSS feed. There is more an more info on mobile computing.

Others are listed on the PowerPoint (which I will try to add as a link). Now the question and answer session is going on, but I am going to post anyway.

Small World

When I used to talk to Library School classes, I always mentioned that this is a small incestuous profession. This was brought home to me yesterday. I was at a networking part of the Conference, when someone said: "Oh, you are the Michael Golrick, I have heard a lot about you!" Well, it turned out to be someone who worked in Tucson after me, and had heard about me. Likewise, I had heard of her from our mutual Tucson friends.

Ironically, after I moved East (to Connecticut), she moved to New York (Westchester County). As we sat and talked at breakfast this morning, we both moved to Wisconsin on the very same day last December, and started our current jobs on the same day.

For some reason our paths had not crossed until now, even though it has been 24 years since I left Arizona.

WLA Conference - Wisconsin Public Library Standards and Certification

Panel discussion:

First presenter was David Polodna (Winding Rivers): Certification in Wisconsin started in the 1920s. In 1965, state library re-organized, and certification went to DPI. In 1975, expiration dates for certification and renewal required continuing education. In 1980 Certification Manual was published. In 1985, new higher level added, and limited to directors. In 1995 new ranges of population established. Changes since, refinements.

Panel: Where do the Standards help in providing good public service? Excellent libraries and staff in the state. There are areas where we do well, and others where we need improvement. ILL is one area of excellence (including delivery), support of intellectual freedom is also high.

Discussion on certification and standards. Certification is one of the requirements to belong to a library system. The Standards are simply voluntary, and have no enforcement value. We have some fabulous people running very small libraries in Wisconsin. Many directors in small towns have lots of community connections. There was much discussion on the very small libraries in the state. Issues of community of identity, and funding.

There was much discussion about professional versus non professional, salary levels, changing roles and job descriptions. One panelist reminded us that libraries expend 60-70% of the budget for salaries. Economic constraints should not drive the discussion of deprofessionalization of any position. There needs to be a Board and community commitment to library training. Discussion about job ads and include requirements for 2-3 years experience.

How do Standards help? How will they help make sure we do well in the future? Provide a target for library development. Assist library boards to assess the quality of their own programs. Provide benchmarks and positive reinforcement for library activities. Ther may be too many categories in the Standards. For small libraries, the number of hours open helps a great deal.

How do we measure quality? Are we even counting the right things? If you measure people's expectations and the service you provide, for many small libraries the gap is small. Can we meet the expectations of a changing population (growth, influx of immigrants, etc.)

The program was more diffuse than I expected, but there were some interesting discussions.

WLA Conference - Thursday Afternoon

No blogging this afternoon.

Lunch was an inspirational speech from Kevin Reilly, President of the University of Wisconsin system.

After lunch I was part of the panel for WLTA entitled "Library and Community Involvement."

After the break I attended the WLA Legislative update on state and federal issues. No predictions were made about when Wisconsin will have a state budget. Rick Grobschmidt did a great job on the budget issues. Paul Nelson covered the other state issues, and Jessica McPhail covered the the federal agenda.

What follows is the Annual Business Meeting, and then the Annual Banquet and Awards.

WLA Conference - Non-Profit Marketing

Don McCartney, UW-Green Bay

What is marketing? Any/all activities that help to facilitate and expedite exchange relationships. It is manipulation, but can be in a good way. Can't control the relationship.

Factors for exchange: must have more than one entity; both entities must have something of value; both entities must be willing to give up their something of value; both must be able to communicate all of the above.

What does this mean? What do we have to offer that is of value.

Market segmentation: Who are your customers? What does your customer want? Have to be careful how to segment, you can cut the market too small. There is difference between mass and targeted marketing. Mass marketing has a lot of overkill. There are internal and external customers. Pay attention to trends.

Social identification: perceived oneness with or belonging to an organization or group. A higher perceived identification results in

Social identity: classification based on demographic categories, social class and membership in organizations.

Self concept: combination of personal identity and social identity. People participate in activities that improve their self-concept.

Organizational membership helps define our self concept. What can your organization offer people, in various segments. People who are passionate about their organization forget that not everyone knows all about that organization.

Perception of prestige increases members' feeling of identification. Has to be prestigious not elitist. Prestige is meant to imply that there is something of value.

The extent to which offerings confirm what the member expects to receive, the higher the level of identification and therefore commitment. Frequency of appropriate contact with the organization will increase member identification.

Participation with similar organizations decreased the depth of identification with any single organization. Level of education impacts identification negatively. More highly educated people tend to be involved in more activities and organizations.

Free is not the reason people become members. Intangible factors like enhancement of self concepts and identification with the organization's mission, are primary reasons for identification.

A strong and visible mission statement is important. Keep it where people can see it often.

Increased contact must occur to increase identification.

Projecting an image of prestige without being elitist is critical to fostering identification and affiliation. Ask both your users and non-users. Could use the University to do a survey at a lower cost. Can tout openness and friendliness, which builds prestige.

Reality is that getting people involved is harder than most people understand. The theory of publics states that communication behaviors can be best understood by measuring how they perceive situations which have organizational consequences.

Only 7% of the general population will ever become an active member of a non-profit organization. [Based on survey, on campus, over 10 years.] Those 7% will do everything for you. Need to pay special attention to this. It is a group which is literally dying.

Need to think about how to position the organization and have a strong mission statement. Can't take anyone for granted any more. People will often stick more with the organization which has built a personal relationship. Solicit ideas from volunteers, even if you may not be able to do everything. Build affinity.

Effective communication creates awareness by the relevance of the material to the person. Latent readiness is subconscious and developed through experience. Each time they hear about the organization they make a positive or negative association.

Knowledge of what an individual has to lose if the organization does not have their support can build latent readiness. Triggering events provide an opportunity to act. It is essential to solicit feedback.

Each time you communicate, decide what the intended results, and figure out how to measure the success.

Must constantly adapt and change based on changing needs. Feedback is the way to figure out what people want and need.

Resources and hints

Journal: Marketing Library Services
Wilson Web: Electronic services won't sell themselves
What do we say to our user, what makes an effective message?
Be graphic............
ProQuest: Promoting Library services in a Google world
www.olc.org/marketing [Ohio Library Council?]
www.librarysupportstaff.com (special issue?)

Establish a "marketing board" and ask for advice.

Dynamic interactive talk, used PowerPoint very well, as the launching point for his talk.

WLA Conference - Open Meetings

Krista Ross did a great presentation on the Wisconsin Open meeting laws. She originally did it for her library system's board of directors.

The open meetings law creates a presumption that meetings of governmental bodies must be held inopen session. The Open Meetings law applies when there is a purpose to engage in governmental business (including discussion, decision or information gathering on matters within its realm of authority) and the number of members present is sufficient to determine the governmental body’s course of action (i.e., you have a quorum).

The two most basic requirements are to give advance public notice of each of its meetings, and conduct all of its business in open session, unless an exemption to the open session requirement applies.

Notice must be given to:

1. The public (as a general rule, in 3 different locations where the public is likely to see it.)
2. Any member of the news media who have submitted a written request for notice
3. The official newspaper, designated pursuant to state statute, or if none exists, to a news medium likely to give notice in the area.

In general the notice must give “time, date, place, and subject matter of the meeting, including that intended for at any contemplated closed session. Governmental bodies may not use general
subject matter designations such as “miscellaneous business” or “agenda revisions” or “such matters as are authorized by law” as a way to raise any subject.

There are four open session requirements:

1. Accessibility: A meeting should be held in a place reasonably accessible to members of the public and open to all citizens at all times,preferably in a public place such as a municipal hall or school, rather than on private premises.
2. Tape Recording and Videotaping: Citizens have the right to attend and observe meetings that are held in open session. They also have the right to tape or videotape open session meetings as long it does not disrupt the meeting.
3. Citizen Participation: The law does not grant citizens the right to participate in the meeting. The governmental body itself is free to determine whether to allow citizen participation at its meetings and may limit the degree to which citizens participate.
4. Minutes of meetings and records of votes: Requires that a governmental body keep a record of the motions and roll call votes at each meeting of the body.

Closed session:

• Dismissal, demotion, discipline, licensing, and tenure
• Compensation
• Conducting public business with competitive or bargaining implications
• Conferring with legal counsel about litigation

Notice must indicate the subject of the closed session. If vote unanimous, do not need a roll call. Must announce in open session the nature of the closed session.

All voting should be in open session, unless doing so would compromise the need for the closed session. Should have minutes of closed session which become public after the issue is resolved.

If you do not re-open in open session, you cannot meet or do any business for at least 12 hours.

Enforcement: Attorney General and the District Attorney have authority.

Penalty: any member of the body who "knowingly" attends; fine is $25 to $300 for each violation.

Other sites:

• League of Municipalities web site: www.lwm-info.org
• Wisconsin Department of Justice

Can go into closed session, without advance notice, but only for an item which is already on the agenda, but cannot come back into open session. If you put times on the length of closed session or on agenda it will limit the length of the session.

WLA Conference - Flash! The Future of the talking book

Marsha Valance from the Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped talked about the new device for blind readers. The new device will begin arriving in mid-2008 for digital talking book machine.

Priority is for veterans, centenarians, and students. It will be 2012 before everyone gets the new hardware. They will maintain cassettes as a format until 2012.

The hardware is 2/3 the size as cassette player. The digital device is about the same size as a cassette with whole in one end to both distinguish end, and for the device to be removed from machine. It weighs only 2 pounds compared to the current 7 pounds. The battery life is now up to 23 hours. You can place up to 1,000 bookmarks. If you push a button on the machine, and nothing is in the machine, it will tell you what that button does.

They are not using the MP3 format, instead they use AMR-WB+. An entire book will fit on a single chip. There will be no more flipping sides. A VictorReader Stream will play NLS digital talking books, and content can be downloaded. A VictorReader Stream costs about $300. IT is sold by HumanWare.

Must join the Library for the Blind. Can sign in to download. User name is the person's email address. Contact by phone (800/242.8822) or email lbph@milwaukee.gov. You can also visit the web site.

The presenter talked about other items available widely on the web. These include Overdrive, Playaways, Baen Free Library, Guttenburg. She also covered the Web Accessibility Initiative. and Section 508.

The web site for the Library has a great page of links for blind readers.

WLA Conference - Learning Games and Simulations

Ulrikr Dieterle who is a health sciences librarian is doing a great presentation on gaming and what we need to know. Right now she is talking about the demographics of gamers. I will later add a link to her presentation on the WLA web site -- she notes that it will be there.

She notes that some of the first simulators include "Rescu-Annie" used to teach CPR and flight simulators for pilots and astronauts.

She has talked about the early games like "Sims" which date from the 1980s and ran on DOS. The military is the largest producer of games in the US.

An interesting presentation and introduction. She presented a good reason for using games as part of the educational process, with many specific examples from the health area.

WLA Conference - Applying Survey Methodology in the Real World

Thomas Walker, Associate Dean, UW Milwaukee SOIS)

Teaches Research Methods, the room was very, very full (about 45-50).

He noted that UIUC also does library research (part of where he learned about surveying), for a fee, as will other consultants. He promised to also talk about the way research reports are reflected in the media. Below is a rough transcription of his presentation with some additional notes.

Introduction to Surveys

• What are they?
• How to plan a survey
• How to collect data
• Sampling
• Questionnaires
• Questions

Surveys: a formal method of gtathering informationk about a group of poeple through a sample, A carefully chosen sampl can be used to project results to a larger population

They are NOT collected from 100%; from a self selected group; collect from a group njust because that "sample" is easy to get data from

Data is gathered systematically using standardized procedures, not associated with individuals, but creates a composite profile of the whole group

Library Surveys usually are to assist in the planning process: identify needs, perceptions of what libraries are and should be, etc.

Surveys and methods of collection:

• telephone
• mail
• in-person at the library or other location
• website or email
• while methods of data collection can be used to describe the type of survey, methods should not be the main reason a sample is chosen

Planning a survey

1. Development [establishes parameters]
   
2. Pre-test [important step]
   
3. Final Draft Plan and survey
4. Implementation
5. Coding
6. Analysis and reporting

Development: define budget, staffing, time; define outcomes; broadly define population and sample; draft data collection method; draft questionnaire

Pre-test [should this be one word or two?]: More clearly define population and sample; refine questionnaire; pretest again; evaluate pretests and continue or pretest again

Final draft of plan and survey

• Finalize population and sample
• Prepare final questionnaire
• Organize logistics of implementation

Implementation: select sample; collect data

Coding: evaluate the validity of data (remove invalid responses and otherwise clean up); prepare data for analysis (code)

Analysis: prepare data sets and subsets; analyze data

Final reporting: contextualize data in pre-established framework of survey plan; prepare report

Two Critical Tasks

• Questionnaire Design
• Sampling

Questionnaires: define what kind of information is required and from whom do you need data;break down complex problems into very simple ones; create clear simple questions, not complex ones; may be self administered or done by an interviewer; should be introduced to let the respondent know what the purpose is, who will analyze it, and whether the results will be made public; should conclude by expressing appreciation; should be written at an appropriate reading level

Confidentiality: statements assuring confidentiality are desirable and may be required; inform respondents that responses are voluntary; if children are involved, extra precautions must be taken

Clear simple questions: scales may be useful (on a scale of 1 to 5...); multiple choice may be clear, if all possible choices have been anticipated; open-ended questions can yield rich data, but are difficult to analyze or quantify; questions should be pre-tested; special terms should be defined

How to Sample

• Define overall population
• Determine accurate ways to sample the population
• There is not one magic formula for determining sample size

Confidence level is important.

• Factors include how exact data needs to be, budget, time, ease of administration
  

Wisconsin Library Association Conference - Keynote

Today was the beginning of the WLA Annual Conference. I'll blog what I can. For the opening session I could not blog live (there was access, but I did not yet have the password). I do now, and these notes are adapted from what I typed in Word and pasted here. It is not all complete sentences....be forewarned.

The keynote was delivered by David Maraniss.

He is a writer from a Madison family and grew up in Madison. He was a writer for the Washington Post and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for articles on Bill Clinton, he has been a finalist at other other times.

He notes that he used to start speeches with his connections to librarians, including aunt, uncle, cousin, and sister (Jean Alexander). He said that he has stopped doing that after hearing his sister come back to his home after a DC conference.

A writer’s life is incredibly boring, about 50-60% is just sitting in a chair writing. He has spent thousands of hours in libraries doing research. Started on Clinton when elected. Living in Austin, found Oxonian, an obscure journal for alumni at UT, and found class notes written by Bob Reich (later Secretary of Labor. Also found 1972 Texas campaign info (Clinton was Texas co-chair) on meeting between McGovern and LBJ at LBJ Presidential Library.

To do the Clinton book, spent time in Arkansas. First day in Hope (Ark) found that half the people claimed to be related to Bill. Motel clerk was great-aunt, invited over to house. Had boxes in attic, effects of grandmother on his mother’s side. Included stash of letters from Georgetown U (1964-68) written to grandmother, also a diary. At University of Arkansas in Little Rock were papers including papers from Fulbright and his last senatorial campaign. Documents from 1974 campaign for Congress.

Hard to find governor documents. Kennedy Library is the tightest and of all the Presidential Libraries, Gerald Ford was the most open.

Moved to Green Bay for 4 months in the winter to work on bio of Lombardi. Deeply Catholic person. Trained by the Jesuits at Fordham. Needed to spend time at Brown County Library. Always go there, is a cardinal rule. Needed to live here to write the chapter on the “Ice Bowl.” Local paper did an article which included phone number. Got lots of calls. Some resulted in contacts that would not have been made otherwise.

Fordham Library was incredibly valuable born Sheepshead Bay, lived in Brooklyn, coached in high school, assistant at Army, assistant for NY Giants. Turned legend on its head: big city kid goes to little town. One of “Seven Blocks of Granite.” Fordham has the actual scrap books from that era. Writers who covered Fordham in that era were Damon Runyon and Grantland Rice.

They Marched in to Sunshine

Protest at UW, and then battle in Vietnam. In 1967, first major war protest which resulted in violence. Asked at Washington Post morgue what was going on in Vietnam that day. Found very small story, where battalion on search and destroy mission where 60 killed, 60 wounded of 140 men. Among those killed was Terry Allen (son of a WWII general), Don Howlett(?) (football player recruited to Army by Lombardi). Then went to LBJ Library to read minutes of meetings LBJ attended. At the very moment of the Vietnam battle Johnson turned to McNamara and asked “How are we ever going to win?” [silent moment.] Also in LBJ archives are the reports from the situation room. It was lied about and presented as a US victory. Also was note from Joe Califano (an aide) about the Madison protest.

State Historical Society has the best collections of alternative newspapers in the world. In danger, and archivist just retired, partly in frustration. Also have archive of other materials including a collection on the San Francisco mime troupe which led the students up the hill. Also, military historians keep very good records. Carlisle PA. Fort McNair found the most important. Interviewed all the survivors could find. Can’t always trust memories. Can trust miniscule, but important details. The rest of chronology can be in error. Military investigation done two-three days after including tape recording of survivors. Wrote report, buried by authorities. Wheaton IL archive operated by Col. McCormack. Includes all the medal winners from 1^st Infantry Division. Found papers on commander (general) getting silver star.

Roberto Clemente book

Papers of Branch Rickey are in LoC. After Brooklyn (Dodgers), went to Pittsburg where he got Roberto Clemente. Had male secretary who took notes as Branch Rickey talked at baseball games. Clemente died en route to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. Found in National Archives and found State Department papers. Looked at relationship with Samoza government. Nixon concern that there not be a revolution, and good health of Howard Hughes.

Clemente tried to get aid because he had been there a few weeks before with a Puerto Rican team.

Lombardi trove from son – water logged boxes.

Clemente book – lawsuit on the plane crash. All the legal documents were missing. Finally found a lawyer in DC who had three cardboard boxes of documents including depositions about the suit.

Next book, coming out next year: World changing in 1960 with the Olympics: race, cold war, women sports (Wilma Rudolph), television, doping scandal, etc. Began right after Gary Powers spy trial. First black African got gold medal as African nations began independence. East and West Germany competed on a combined team. This time able to ask, “How would you like to go to Rome?” Then went to Lausanne Switzerland to Olympic headquarters and archive.

Owe all librarians a debt of gratitude.